Patterson Hood doesn’t pull any punches in “What It Means,” a track from the Drive-By Truckers’ forthcoming album American Band. The Southern rock outfit has never exactly shied away from political topics in its 20 years of existence, having discussed segregationist governors and class disparity, but here the Alabama-born songwriter comments on the violence inflicted on African American citizens over the last couple years.

“If you say it wasn’t racial when they shot him in his tracks, well I guess it means that you ain’t black,” Hood sings in his thick Alabama drawl, a reference to a staggering amount of recent events. With insistent strums of acoustic guitar carrying the tune forward and shades of organ and electric guitar coloring the edges, Hood describes our inability (and unwillingness, in some cases) to process the injustice against our fellow men and women, and the blinding effects of white privilege. “Don’t look to me for answers because I don’t know what it means,” he adds near the end.

“‘What It Means'” is a song I wrote a couple of years ago protesting the Ferguson decision and the Trayvon Martin killing,” explains Hood. “Unfortunately, the song is still timely today. I hope and pray that one day it won’t be.”

American Bandcomes out September 30th via ATO Records. Drive-By Truckers will launch their North American tour August 19th with a show at Belly Up in Aspen, Colorado, and will be on tour through the 2016 election with guests including Yonder Mountain String Band in August and September, Lydia Loveless in September and October and Kyle Craft in November.